Revisiting the Legacy of the Fight for $15 (with Yannet Lathrop and Dr. T. William Lester)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Over ten years ago, activists and civic leaders ignited the Fight for $15, a movement that was once seen as radical—even Forbes labeled Nick's support for a $15 minimum wage as “near-insane.” Today, the movement's achievements are undeniable: Higher wages for millions of workers, increased union membership, reducing the racial wealth gap, and now raising the federal minimum wage to $15/ hr is one of the central issues in the 2024 presidential campaign, with two-thirds of voters in support. We thought it would be a good time to revisit this episode from 2023, where Yannet Lathrop and Dr. T. William Lester discuss their report from the National Economic Law Project examining the legacy of the movement and all it has accomplished over the last decade. This episode originally aired on January 24, 2023. Yannet Lathrop is a Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst for the National Employment Law Project. Dr. T. William Lester is Professor and Acting Chair of Urban and Regional Planning at San José State University and Research Professor at UNC Chapel Hill. Twitter: @NELPnews Further reading: Ten-Year Legacy of the Fight for $15 and a Union Movement Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics Substack: The Pitch

Transcript

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0:00.0	Because even billionaires deserve a little time off.
0:03.4	We're celebrating Labor Day weekend by re-airing a conversation from 2023
0:10.0	about the legacy of the $15 minimum wage.
0:14.4	What was its impact on workers and local economies?
0:18.3	spoiler alert.
0:19.7	When workers have more money, businesses have more customers and tire more workers.
0:25.8	Enjoy.
0:26.8	I can remember when the idea of raising the minimum wage $15 an hour was just a glint in the
0:31.7	eye of a few people.
0:33.0	Since 2012, there have been 86 jurisdictions that have adopted higher wages.
0:37.6	And as a result, 26 million workers have won 150 billion in races.
0:42.4	The Fight for 15 movement is associated with a narrowing of the wealth gap.
0:46.3	It turned out to really help unions too. It helped the labor movement.
0:50.3	The best part of the legacy is killing neoliberalism.
0:54.0	From the home offices of civic ventures in downtown Seattle,
1:02.0	this is Pitch Fork Economics, with Nick Hanauer, the best
1:06.0	place to get the truth about who gets what and why. I'm Nick Henauer, founder of Civic Ventures.
1:17.0	I'm David Goldstein, Senior Fellow at Civic Ventures.
1:23.0	I don't know if we've talked about this on the podcast before Nick,
1:31.0	but when it comes to our economic advocacy, you and I have kind of interrelated origin stories.
1:38.0	A little bit? Yeah, yeah, back in, it was back in 2012 when you first drew ridicule from some of your
1:48.8	cohort and certainly from Forbes magazine for advocating a $15 minimum wage.
	...

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